A passenger Mohd Umardaraz from Bijnor Uttar Pradesh stranded at Terminal 3 of Delhi airport after his flight to Kuwait was canceled due to airspace restrictions over Iran and parts of the Middle East on March 1, 2026 in New Delhi, India.
Arvind Yadav | Hindustan Times | Getty Images
The first Emirates flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, took off Monday evening for Mumbai, India, flight data showed, hours after the airline got the green light from local authorities to resume a “limited number” of flights.
It’s a sign of how airlines are preparing to restart service to the region after thousands of flight cancellations.
Emirates flight EK500 took off at 9:12 p.m. local time, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking site. The flight was carried out on an Airbus A380, the largest airliner in the world.
Separately, Israeli airline El Al said Monday it was considering chartering private jets to bring stranded Israeli citizens home.
The announcements mark a potential improvement after air travel across much of the Middle East was shut down over the weekend following U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and subsequent retaliatory strikes.
The attacks closed airspace over much of the region, stranding hundreds of thousands of customers around the world and leading to thousands of flight cancellations, including those not flying to and from the region since planes could not transit through those areas. Dubai is one of the busiest air travel hubs in the world.
The airport authority which owns and manages Dubai airports said a small number of flights would be allowed to operate from Dubai International and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International, but advised travelers to check with their airlines.
For its part, Emirates announced that it would begin operating a “limited number of flights” on Monday evening and urged its customers not to travel to the airport unless informed by the airline.
“We are prioritizing customers with earlier bookings,” he said in a message on X. “All other flights remain suspended until further notice,” he said.
El Al said it plans to lease KlasJet planes to fly passengers from European airports to Aqaba, across Jordan’s southern border, for the airline’s customers. It had previously considered operating flights to and from Taba, Egypt, but said later on Monday that plan had been abandoned “due to lack of approval from security authorities in Israel.”
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways said on Monday that all commercial flights to and from the city were suspended until Wednesday afternoon local time, although it could operate some cargo and repatriation flights “subject to strict operational and security protocols”.